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Su-Wei Style Influencing And Inspiring Next Gen Aoi Ito
· Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios
The unique play style of Su-Wei Hsieh has had a profound effect on professional tennis as her touch, feel, spinny, unpredictable way of playing charmed and captivated fans who embraced her original shots and tactics. Chris Evert said on live TV while broadcasting Hsieh for the first time at Australian Open a few years ago, “I’ve never seen anyone play tennis like Hsieh.”
This week at the Osaka WTA tournament a disciple of the eccentric Hsieh play style has emerged in 20 year old Aoi Ito, who has sliced and diced her way to the semifinals by beating Kenin, Lys and Cocciaretto.
“The player I admire is Hsieh Su-Wei,” Japan’s Ito said. “Even though I’m skinny, I can beat foreign players. I’m aiming to play tennis like Hsieh, and I’m trying to become unique. I don’t have any power, so I try to compete by technique. By slicing, by drop shots, by figuring out how to beat power.”
For Ito, ranked just inside the top 200, this is her breakout tournament after playing a couple of years of mostly small money ITF tournaments.
Going into the week, wildcard Ito was quite modest about her chances. “First round, I tried to get two games,” she said after her win over Cocciaretto in second round. “Second round this time, I wanted to get four games. So next round, I’ll try to get six games!”
She has exceeded her own expectations considerably in each match by blending her defensive brilliance, excellent mobility and surprising offensive firepower, often leaving opponents frozen by a shot that they did not expect.
Ito’s sudden success has even caught the WTA off guard. The WTA profile page doesn’t have any photo of Ito or any background or personal detail information like birthdate, birthplace or height weight. The page does say Ito is ranked 188 and has a 51-21 record this year, good enough for almost $48,000 in prize money.
Ito can do anything – snap winners, throw up a moonball and attack net and hit the volley winner, fire a return winner, rip a swing volley winner, drop shot out of the blue, hit a running passing shot and then smile in joy. When Ito beat Cocciaretto, she took off her visor, shook hands and bowed to her opponent.
Though skinny in build, Ito seems to be a more natural fluid mover than Hsieh and it’s completely plausible she can achieve a better singles career than her inspiration who rose to 23 in the world in 2013 and won three singles titles (Hsieh has been no. 1 in doubles three times and won 35 doubles titles and is currently ranked 8 at age 38).
It’s perfect timing to see the great Su-Wei Hsieh, surely at the homestretch of her legendary career, has now inspired her heir apparent successor Aoi Ito.
Ito wears Dunlop attire and plays with a Dunlop racquet.
Update: Ito scored her breakout win this week by defeating Jasmine Paolini yesterday at the Montreal WTA tournament.
Aoi Ito · Dunlop · Japan · Osaka · WTA
